Interview: Deceased (Usa)

Hails! This is the interview with King Fowley from the legendary Deceased!!!

1.- With 25 years into the Underground, for you what is the best thing, that Deceased gives to you like a band?
- I have loved all of our years of learning our craft and performing our craft and every year getting a little bit better at it all. It’s all been what it is and it's all been a learning and living experience. the band means a lot to me! i am very happy to have had it for so long, it's personally kept me sane and out of trouble!

2.- Please introduce us to the new warriors in Deceased with a few words...
- The new warriors are Shane Fuegel on guitar, a long time friend and a wild as hell guitar player. I’ve always loved his band Biovore and we've always had a special bond as Voivod fanatics! He’s really added some wild, 'raw' edge to the guitar sound which i love!
Matt Altieria is the young buck in the band on guitar live and he's a real speed merchant on guitar who loves the fast picking stuff and really has a love for the energy and weird mayhem that is Deceased! He’s been a friend online for many years and now he's part of the band. Eric Mayes is an incredible drummer who I’ve known for almost 20 years. He plays in Biovore with Shane and I’ve always loved his drumming style and power hitting! We also have Chris Paolino filling in on some gigs on bass this year for Les whose about to marry and taking a little time off this year to prepare it all. He’s a thrash mutant and a great friend. he's busted ass to get the songs up to par quickly on bass so we can keep on rocking on the road! i love these guys! Couldn’t do it without them! Mike and Les of course are ready for the new lp and are vital parts to the Deceased attack!

3.- What is the main concept in the band?
- To be ourselves. To not cater to anything other then making and playing the best music we can possibly create. Doing things at our speed and in our own frame of mine. Sincerity, dedication and togetherness is how we live!!!

4.- How much differs the sound between the classic era with Relapse Records and this new era of Deceased?
- It all comes from the heart and it comes out how it does from whatever is creeping through all our minds when we sit down to write at any given time. We have always had melody and always had speed but we've also had ideas that took years to work up to and we've bettered our instruments as we've gone. Everything is made with full on sincerity and everything we put out is where we are at the date it's released! We started out to play fast and heavy and weird and we sit here today to play fast, heavy, and weird and make memorable tunes!



5.- Zombies, death, horror are the mainly themes in your lyrics, what inspires you to make this kind of lyrics?
- I have a weird though pattern at times. Very morbid! The zombies came from the early days and 'birth by radiation' demo. i wanted to do that story on record so we did 'fearless undead machines' record in 97. The horror/death themes are what i wanted to write about and why i chose the name Deceased all those years ago. It’s fitting and it's a spinning wheel inside me always. Death is such a thought provoking thing!

6.- Do you still have some memories about your first gigs?
- Absolutely! i love the gigs we've done, all of 'em! All are memories in many, many ways! the early gigs i remember playing parties locally without singing (i hadn't got it down yet while playing drums) and just ripping through Sodom, Bathory, Slayer, Hirax, DRI covers along with early originals like 'gutwrench', 'after the bloodshed' and 'sick thrash'! People not knowing what to make of us. borrowing equipment we didn't have. Making friends and enemies with local bands for many reasons. Smoke bombs lit off in people’s living rooms. Huge keg parties with 500 freaks. Cops busting places. Renting out local halls to do shows and trashing the places. it's always fun to think back!

7.- Do you think your old fans appreciate the evolution of Deceased or do they probably prefer the straight forward brutality of your earlier releases?
-I think it varies person to person. i have people come up and tell me 'play the luck of the corpse stuff' then the next guy say 'i want to hear the new material' then the next say 'i love it all'! i think people appreciate us being true to ourselves musically and i think they appreciate us 'growing' as a band as the years go on. it is never gonna be a phony sound from us and that is the thing people i think know most of all!



8.- How important are the lyrics in Deceased?
- Very important! i want the listener to understand the vocals and get an idea of the horror tinged tales i put together. i want the tunes to fit with the lyrics and vice versa. lyrics have become much more to me as time goes on. Early on it was just words that rhymed put into place to shout out, now it's more from the mind of a storyteller!

9.- Do you still listen to the same music these days that had influenced your writing when Deceased originally started out? Any new bands that you enjoy in the same way?
- I love tons of music and always have. i love my metal and love all the bands/albums/demos of those bands that influenced me. Voivod, Fate, Venom, Sabbath, Kiss, early Slayer, Exciter, Sodom, Repulsion, Maiden, Saxon, English Dogs, MDC, Ramones, all of it. a wide variety of sounds and bands have always lived within my musical tastes. As for new bands doing the death metal thing, I appreciate some of it but most bands sadly now just make it extreme with no substance. Throw away songs and little talent! That upsets me! To me the elders that write songs and deliver the intensity will always own my heart!

10.- Since 2001 you have a lot of Best Of Compilations and one EP, one Full length and some Splits, what is the reason of this, and why don´t make some new Full Length albums?
- We have had some major problems with the band and my health in this last decade. i had a blood clot in my lung in 2002 and a stroke in 2004! that really took time to recover from. we also lost long time band member Mark Adams a few years back and Mike Smith retired from playing live a year before that. We needed to put new people in and get it right. We don't half ass and i wouldn't just throw some guys on stage and call it Deceased! We also left Relapse records and needed time to regroup on that. All of our releases to us have been worthwhile. Two all covers albums with punk and metal covers of bands we grew up on. a 2 cd set of all our demos, some never released at all, not even on tape. an official live cd. a remix of 'the blueprints for madness' album as well as other singled out demos on cd as well. The only comp was a 'best of' for a polish mag exclusively! We expected to have a new lp by 2007 but then Mark left. it took awhile to get things right. but we've been writing through it all and the new lp is almost here! Look for it summer 2010!!!



11.- By the way did you choose the bands (Sacrificial Blood and Crucified Mortals are a great bands) for the Split albums?
- Both are friends! Cool guys and they asked us! it's been great playing with both bands live at times and we've enjoyed the splits very much with them!

12.- How do you personally judge “The Blueprints of Madness” in retrospect? Are you still Satisfied with it?
-I love the music, sound stinks. i remixed it and it got a bit better but it'll never be 'right'! i love the weirdness of the record and we really did go all out to freak things out and go left field a bit. a very odd record but one i appreciate and enjoy outside of the sound of it!!!

13.- How was the experience to do a Live Album like "Up The Tombstones"?
- Great! fun as hell night that was! Tons of friends showed up locally and we had a hell of a party afterwards. a few songs never made the live record 'frozen screams', 'feasting on skulls' and 'two minutes to midnight' got taken off because the mix had a few problems and the snare mic was lost but it came out ok sound wise and served its purpose. Great memories for sure!!!!

14.- Could you please answer spontaneously to these words...
- Deceased: a very important part of my life!
Arlington: where i grew up! 'Home'!
Death: the end of life. a never ending wonder!
Heavy Metal: the best music ever made when performed correctly!



15.- What are the concrete plans of the band for this 2010?
- Recording and releasing our new LP 'surreal overdose' on our own record label Shrieks from the hearse records. lots of gigs in the U. S. to celebrate our 25th anniversary of the band! And getting the website back up, which it is now... upthetombstones.net

16.- Anything to add or ask?
- Thanks so much for caring about and supporting us brother! Happy new year to everyone! Hope to see everyone on the road in 2010! Look for the new record, visit the website and take care of each other! UP THE TOMBSTONES!!!!!

You can check this guys on:
www.upthetombstones.net
www.myspace.com/undeadmachines